Harrison and Grandad

We have been so blessed to have my parents here every weekend for the past 4 months while my dad helped a church that's going through a transition right now. The kids loved seeing Mimi and Grandad every week. Harrison's started asking EVERY monday morning "mimi??, grandad??" and keeps asking me every 5 minutes ALL DAY!!



This weekend was the last weekend they'll be here for awhile and I got some cute pictures/video of Grandad and Harrison. Grandad was trying to study for his sermon, but Harrison wanted to read his Bible instead. I have to say, this little guy LOVES his grandad. Harrison probably spends 55 minutes of every hour touching my dad in some way. He will sit with him, hold onto his leg, or just point where he wants to go while Grandad totes him around. He carries his play phone around and "talks" to grandad; and yes, it's always grandad he's talking to!!



I'm glad I took this picture, since about 5 minutes later, Harrison threw up all over him!!

A Valentine's Date

The night before Valentine's Day, Matt and Madeleine had a special valentine date. She was SOOOOO excited and looked forward to it all week long!! She told me that she HAD to wear a dress and wanted to put on some makeup/perfume too -- so cute. Matt came home with a balloon, flower, and stickers for her and then they headed out.

They went to Madeleine's favorite "real" restaurant -- The Marketplace. She was so proud to be having a night with just her and dad. I think this smile says it all!!!!

You can't go to The Marketplace without getting this fabulous dessert -- Chocolate Mess. It's Madeleine's favorite. Yum!

She told me later that she licked the cup clean......I hope that's not true, but somehow I'm afraid it is.

After dinner they went one of her favorite places, Barnes and Noble. That girl could spend HOURS looking at books (just like her mommy!). Matt let her play and look to her little hearts content. She came home so happy. They both had such a good time, I think it might become a tradition around here.

Happy Friday!!

Some random pictures from the past weeks.......mostly of Harrison since Madeleine hasn't really been into having her picture taken for whatever reason. :)

Harrison cleaning. They copy what they see.

"Sharing" the firetruck.


What we do ALOT these days......playtime at the mall.

Oh yeah, more cleaning.

Cheesy.

More cheesy.

Showing off.

Totally random......but for my sister so she can give me her opinion on how the tops of my cabinets look. What do you think????

Turning 30

This year I celebrated my birthday in the most perfect way! The weekend before my birthday Matt and I were able to spend the weekend in Tulsa, sans kids, which was such a nice treat!

Then, on my actual birthday we celebrated as a family with dinner at one of our favorite places -- Red Robin. We had a great meal and the kids were perfect, which is a gift itself!

Then after dinner we headed home for some cake!! Matt ordered me the MOST BEAUTIFUL cake that I've ever had and it was sooooo yummy too!

Madeleine was excited to help with putting the candles on the cake. She wanted to put 30 on there, but daddy was able to talk her into a few less. hahaha Didn't want to set the house on fire. :)

After dinner it was time for some presents.....what do you get a gal that celebrating such a monumental birthday, you ask???? Well, Matt let me have a little shopping spree at my favorite store, Ann Taylor Loft, check out this haul!

He also sent me some beautiful flowers!

And, I got a copy of my FAVORITE TV show! Yep, I'm a closet Gilmore Girls fan! I like having something to watch when I run and this is great!

Matt also picked out some "smell-good" items, too.

Madeleine picked out this coffee mug for me.....which I LOVE and use everyday. She told matt that it had to be pink -- Love that!!!

The next day (yes, our birthday celebrations last and last, haha) my parents came up to celebrate with me! They took us to dinner at our new favorite mexican spot -- Abuelos -- which is soooooo good!! We had such a pleasant dinner since Mr. Mess decided to nap through the entire meal. :)

Then we went back and I got the MOST awesome present from them. Something I've been wanting, dreaming of for YEARS. It really deserves a post all of it's own (and will get one). Let me just say that I'm thinking of naming it.....because when you love something as much as I love this, it really should have a name.......

P is for Princess

Madeleine's class celebrated learning the letter "P" with a Princess (and Pirates for the boys) treasure hunt. They all dressed up and went on an adventure, which is right up Madeleine's alley.....lately she creates "maps" for us and we have to follow them to find treasure. Quite interesting. First they read a book about a troll that captures a princess and hides her. Then they went on a little obsticale course......

to the place where they made a telescope to help them search for the princess. By this time, as you can tell in the photos, Madeleine had ditched her crown, jewels and shoes. Oh well. Here she is working on her telescope....

Then they all worked together to rescue the princess and find the treasure. It was a chest full of candy, coins and "precious" gems. :) Such a fun day!

Where we've been.....

In case you missed the news, we had quite the ice storm here last week. It's amazing to see these pictures right now, since today it was in the 60s!! We had a pretty eventful week.....Monday all the schools dismissed early and we met Matt at home around 2:00. By bedtime the freezing rain was coming down pretty good. When we got up Tuesday morning, it was STILL coming down and everything around us was icy. Our lights started to flicker and around 4:30 Tuesday afternoon they went out.....just as Harrison was waking up from his nap. Great timing since it's dark around 5:30. :) We managed to keep the kids occupied for a few hours, but by 7:30 they were bored out of their minds.....so we all went to bed, in our bed. Needless to say it was probably the WORST night of sleep I've ever had. And, by the time we got up the next morning, our house was a chilling 50 degrees and falling. So, we headed out to brave the elements (the rain had stopped and we just were having snow now) to find somewhere warm for breakfast. We managed to find somewhere open to eat, then spent a couple of hours bumming around Target where they had power and heat!!! We decided that we'd just spend the $$$ on a hotel.....and avoid pneumonia.......and after landing what was probably the LAST hotel room in NWA we headed home to pack. As I zipped up the suitcase, of course, the power came ON!!! That was probably around noon. So, we survived the ice storm of 2009. :) Here are some pictures that I took from our back porch. The ponds were frozen SOLID. It looks like snow, but it's really about 2 inches of ice with about a half inch of snow on top. It last until Saturday and now it just pretty much looks like a war zone here with all the trees down.